Week zero is just 24 hours away and the Alabama Crimson Tide playoff hype is real. With long time Tide gunslinger Ty Simpson finally being handed the keys to the team, college football experts around the country are expecting the Tide to roll this fall. This list of experts includes the Big Ten’s flagship voice, and host of several Fox Sports shows, Joel Klatt.
Monday morning Klatt rolled out his College Football Playoff bracket prediction on the Joel Klatt Show. He had four SEC teams making the tournament, with Texas winning the conference and Georgia becoming the runner up. Alabama finished the season 10-2 alongside bitter rival LSU so both teams earned a nod.
Klatt believes there will be four teams fighting for the final three spots in the bracket, but this time around, Bama gets the benefit of the doubt.
“Of the four, there’s clearly going to be one who has a win over the other because of location of the game- which would also be the best win on the board,” Klatt predicts. “And I’m talking about Alabama beating LSU at home.”
In this hypothetical, Alabama receives the ninth seed. Klatt cites Alabama’s schedule, which currently is ranked as the 12th most difficult schedule in the country on ESPN’s power index, as the reason why they earn this seed with two losses.
“Even if they’re able to beat LSU, there’s a good chance they might have two other losses,” Klatt continued. “Even if they stub their toe somewhere else, they’re not in the SEC championship game but they have that win over LSU. They’re being compared to LSU, which means they would get the next highest seed, which is nine.”
Joel Klatt Predicts Alabama To Have Record Breaking Playoff Win
In Klatt’s playoff scenario, Alabama squares off with the Big 12 Champion Kansas State Wildcats on the road in the first round of the playoffs.
Last season was the first year in which team’s actually hosted home playoff games in college football history. Of the four games played in true home environments, zero road teams walked away with a win.
Klatt thinks Alabama is the kind of team that can change that.
“This would be the first upset that we’ve gotten, a road team going into the playoff and winning,” he predicted. “The first one (to do it) is going to be Alabama. Kalen DeBoer needs it. He needs a win in the College Football Playoff, I think, so I’ve got Alabama over Kansas State.”
Alabama Falls In Rose Bowl
In this scenario, Alabama draws the overall one seed in the entire tournament, Big Ten champion Penn State. Klatt leans on the desperation of PSU, a team that has never been able to come away with the big win, as the reason why this time will be different.
“They’ve got more experience. They were just here (College Football Playoffs). It won’t be new for them. Penn State moves on into the semifinals,” Klatt said of the Nittany Lions.
Would a Rose Bowl appearance in Year 2 be enough for Kalen Deboer to get the haters off his back in Tuscaloosa?
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